As much as the blog is for sharing moments with friends and family, it’s also about remembering. And there is so much I want to remember about this trip, especially because I have a cold and through the fog I don’t know if I am able to fully appreciate it. With that said, here is the memory I want to keep:
After three days in the Paradise we call Tobacco Caye, full of snorkeling, coral transects, and seeing things that only Nat Geo or Animal Planet films, we had to return to the jungle where we live at the TEC (Tropical Education Center). But there was plenty to explore here too. Waking at 3:45am, we ate Belizean biscuits and boarded a bus for the Runaway Creek Nature Reserve. This place is closed to the public but Birds Without Boarders invited us to come and explore. After a hike through Pine Savanna and then the Jungle (complete with signs of recent Jaguar activity…scratches and trail cams), we arrived in the coolness of caves. It was a brief reprieve from the sticky heat and also the home to ancient Mayan cave paintings.
Howler monkeys and metallic blue butterflies greeted us on our return hike…and despite the swarm of mosquitoes, the heat, and the cold I am trying to kick, I felt so blessed. I get to be seeing and doing things that I would never do otherwise. And I see God’s fingerprints everywhere.
I am tired, I am sick, I do think of home often…but I know that I am in a good place.
